Yesterday was my birthday. I am now 28. Yay!
So to celebrate, I threw a party at my new place this past Saturday in Brooklyn. For the past two years I’ve brought together all my friends from my various circles for dinner and drinks, but instead of dealing with the headache of picking a place to eat that everyone would like (and afford), as well as the ever increasing crowd at Revival (which is my fave bar near Union Square that’s unfortunately becoming extremely popular, and is therefore always crowded no matter the time or day), I figured it would also be a good chance to show off my sweet new pad, which is the first place I’ve been in years that I’m actually proud to show off (and not in some horror show sort of way).
And, it was a blast. I’ve wanted to throw a proper party for years, and it was, for the most part, a success (at least, I’d like to think that everyone had a good time.) Besides the gratification that comes with filling one’s home with all your friends, it was just nice to see everyone so impressed with my new home since, once again, everyone knows how shitty my previous place of residence. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit cold, so the spacious backyard went unused, but otherwise it was perfect conditions for a BBQ.
Like I said, I have friends that hail from many different circles, so I always look forward to my birthday gatherings as a good chance to have them all together and to witness the interactions. I mean, where-else can you find the biggest nerd from WIllamsburg, two punk rockers from Queens, an ex NYPD detective, a hippie that makes robots, plus various folks from the world of comics and web design all hanging out under one roof for one reason?
And no, I did not get pissed drunk (for the most part). It was my duty to say sober enough at least to be a proper host.
As for presents, I did score some pretty sweet stuff. Highlights include the Incredibles on DVD from Robin, Masters of Doom from Jason (which I really want to read now since there’s a Showtime movie in the works), and Flight Volume 2 (plus another comic which he promises will be “the best comic I read all year” and coming from Dave, its a guarantee). I also got $100+ worth of gift certificates for game stores (everyone’s afraid to get me any games since most assume I have everything… not necessarily true, but its understandable) and a few cook books… almost everyone knows how I wasn’t able to cook in my last couple of apartments and how much I’ve been looking forward to having a real kitchen.
And all that is in addition to the stuff I treated myself to from Play Asia, including the Sega Saturn PS2 controller I mentioned once before (I can finally play Virtua Fighter Evo properly), some assorted Nintendo and Sega Gashapon, and I finally got that Mega Drive encyclopedia that Chaz introduced me to a long whiles back.
Anyway, the party went well into the next morning, with me boring the few folks still hanging around with stories from back home regarding my supposed hatred for the handicapped (I swear, you beat up
I finally got the chance to sleep in the next day, which I’ve been wanting to do for weeks now. Robin and Jenny Gonzalez stayed the night, so they helped MK and I clean the place up, plus we all went out for lunch at my new fave diner near the heart of Park Slope. After they left, we continued with the cleaning and soon discovered that there was just too much beer left over (a lot of folks brought their own to the party), so I packed them all in a bag and we went door to door around my block in an attempt to give them away (plus we figured it would be a good chance to meet the neighbors). But much to our shock, we were not able to give away a single bottle. Everyone either refused the free brew or most folks weren’t home (or at least pretended to be). The one person we were most disappointed to not have met was someone who had a ton of comic book related boxes crushed in front of his or her place. I still have to figure out who this person is, and if he or she is actually involved in comics or not. Anyway, when some teenager in the back of the ice cream truck laughed at us, I knew it was time to give up.
And the highlight of that evening was playing around with a Samsung e715, which I’m still obsessed with belonged to one of Stephy’s friends who came over.
As for yesterday, my actual date of birth, I spent it at home; John Mac was nice enough to give me the day off. So I again slept in, got all caught up on the web, and finally filled up my iPod with my music collection (I really wanted to have that done by the party, but maybe its for the best that I didn’t subjugate my friends to video game tunes). Then I went into the city to meet up with Joe and Jay; the plan was for MK to pick us up and head to Callahan’s for some birthday hot dogs.
But like a total retard, I never clarified where she was going to pick us up; I had assumed that she was going to drive into Manhattan, but we were actually supposed to meet in Hoboken, so then it was a hurried trek to the PATH station. And once more, I was reminded why I left Jersey City to begin with; first off, some jack-off wouldn’t move out of the way for me to enter the turnstile (he was waiting to get a PATH card. I repeatedly said “excuse me” but he had his fucking headphones on and was totally oblivious, so I literally had to push him out of the way, which got him pissed and the dude gave me attitude. The thing about people when they make snarky remarks is that they never expect an actual response, but I was more than happy to get into his face and state my case.
That’s not all! On Jay’s end, as he was trying to insert money at his turnstile, some dumb dimwitted woman, who was busy digging in her purse, totally cut in front of him. When Jay mentioned to her that he was first, she stated “Don’t worry, I’m just looking for my ticket.” Just when he finally got all his cash in, that’s when she conveniently slips through the turnstile and steal’s Jay’s ride. What a fucking cunt!!! So for everyone who wants to know why there’s always a bottleneck at the PATH stations, it cuz of retards like those two. But hey, what birthday, let alone any day, is complete without me loosing my tempter with dumb asses, right?
Thankfully, it was smooth sailing from that point on; MK picked us up, we went to Callahan’s, and enjoyed our hot dogs. All in all, a perfect birthday celebration.
And yet there’s more! Tomorrow at work, I’m getting a cupcake party, which should be awesome (my boss always goes the distance with gourmet cupcakes, the ones that are like $5 a pop). Plus I have one of the gift certificate handy, one from Best Buy, and haven’t decided if I want to put it towards Zelda: the Minish Cap or Gran Turismo 4.
As for pics from the party, I have several, but I haven’t gone through all of them, plus I know others like Dave took a few and I’m waiting for to see those. Once I have everything, I’ll probably post them here. Till then, here’s a pic of both MK and myself, which I really dig cuz not only are we smiling, but we’re both smiling at you.
Also, you can go to Steve’s site for a camera phone shot; I’m not drunk in the pic, just blind.
________________________________________________________________________________
May as well pass some game related news…
- In addition to yesterday’s big news of Adobe buying Macromedia, Gamestop also bought EB Games, their primary competitor, making Gamestop the biggest and most powerful retail source for games in the country.
I myself hated both outfits equally, but lack of choice is always a bad thing.
- I really wish I was in LA today. Why? Cuz of the opening of the i am 8 bit art show. Check out some of these pieces…
That last one is easily my favorite.
Oh well, at least I have the Takashi Murakami show at Japan Society to look forward to (I’ll probably be checking that out later this week or the weekend).
- So according to an upcoming issue of Play, the aforementioned Super Gunstar Heroes is actually going to be a GBA game. Interesting. Well Advance Guardian Heroes was a real disappointment, yet their Astroboy title was easily the best GBA game of last year, so I have high hopes. And yes, I am relieved that its not a DS title.
- Sticking to the subject of Sega, Jason and I have long entertained the notion of writing a book on what was one of the most powerful and influential forces in games. While that has a while’s to go before actually happening, here’s an excellent resource that someone on the GAF pointed towards that’s for anyone wanting to further familiarize themselves with what once was.
- And speaking of the past, want to find out how much you know about video games? Then take one of these quizzes. Some of them are quite tricky.
- Click-Stick is now offering an awesome shirt for sale. The reason why its so cool is cuz its not like every other video game related shirt out there that’s so obvious; for 99% of the folks out there, they won’t know what it means, while the 1% is sure to appreciate it.
- Sticking to the subject of clothing, I know this is sorta old maybe, but you can now pre-order the Pac Man Hat. Neat, but I still much prefer the Katamari hat.
That and the Moai head from Gradius.
- Again, more old news, but I’ve been checking out these screen shots for Namco X Capcom on this page practically everyday since I first came across it. Wouldn’t you know the one Capcom Vs game I actually want to play won’t be making it to stateside. Damn…
- Time for even more chip tunes: here’s a duo which is getting well deserved buzz due to a recent television appearance. They’re called 8-Bit Weapon. Check ‘em out.
Plus I just found out that there used to be a radio show in Sweden that was all about game music, Unfortunately its no longer being produced, but its still available for downloading. Granted, if you can’t understand Swedish, you are missing out (or at least I’m assuming so), but there’s still some really cool stuff covered that’s worth listening to.
- I finally checked the front page of insert credit for the first time in weeks; I keep forgetting that regular updates are back. Even though it’s one again, old news, this one still deserves some attention: here’s some guy who decided to put the ashes of his dead dog in a Neo Geo cart.
- And courtesy of IC, here’s the official Senko no Ronde page from G Rev. So it seems that pic of that anime chick from this post is actually a dude. Jesus Christ…
- Finally, what happens when you combine Punch Out and breakfast? This game. Yeah, it’s a total rip-off, but at least its a very well done rip-off. Love that music.
